The Chicago Bulls opened the season falling far short of their championship expectations. Now, recent signs point toward an imminent, albeit tenuous, turnaround.
Over the first four games of the season, the Bulls were, in a word, awful. They won just one game, and that took a remarkable, challenged game-winning shot from Derrick Rose, which, realistically, had no business going in.
If we look at some of the numbers over the opening stretch, it’s pretty clear the Bulls were losing because they deserved to. Over that time, there wasn’t much to get excited about. Even the Bulls' normally stellar defense was playing below average.
Their defensive rating over that stretch was just 101.5, good for 15th in the league. They were giving up a three-point percentage of 45.2 percent, by far the worst. They were 17th in opponent’s effective field-goal percentage at 50.0 percent.
None of those were what you'd associate with a Tom Thibodeau defense.
Things were even worse on offense. Their offensive rating was a meager 96.3, 28th in the league. Th ...
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Article written by Kelly Scaletta